Today Gracen and I ventured out to Port Coquitlam to meet up with a bunch of other mommies and munchkins at Kinder Cafe, an indoor playground geared towards preschool-aged children and their coffee-loving mamas. It was a bit of an adventure getting there (we missed our exit amidst the construction and ended up having to go into Surrey, loop around, and come back over the Port Mann Bridge with rush hour traffic), but it was well worth it. The play structures were engaging, the coffee was delish, and the company was wonderful, as always. Gracen had a great time playing and hanging out with her friends and was still talking about it tonight during dinner. Overall, I’d say that it was a hit. Here are a few photos from our visit:
Thrilled to be in a bouncy castle just for little kids.
She went absolutely nuts in here. There was a lot of shrieking, running, clapping, jumping, and ball throwing involved.
Who knew that 10:30 a.m. = bubble time at Kinder Cafe?! The munchkins LOVED it.
Little mommy in the playhouse.
Swinging.
Hanging out with her little friend, Keagan while Baby Tate snoozes on Auntie Steffie.
Tunnel crawling.
Apparently she thinks she’s a little smaller than she actually is.
Firefighter Grae taking a little break.
A special Saturday brunch.. French crepes with berries and fresh whipped cream.
Attempting to sneak a sip of Uncle Brett’s coffee.
Stealing his last bite instead.
Headed out for playtime with Papa.
Bedtime for baby.
Gracen LOVES rocks. It’s a new obsession of hers. Everywhere we go, she stops to carefully select new rocks to add to her collection. We take them in the house, wash them with warm soapy water, and add them to her yellow bowl that sits on our counter. Crazy, I know. Well imagine today when we pulled up to our usual scrapbook supply store and found this instead of a sidewalk. Miss G was in rock heaven. She sat there for several minutes, and inspected rock after rock in order to fulfill Mama’s ‘just one’ rule. It took some time, but she finally picked out the perfect one and we carried on our way. Silly little doodle.
Messy hair. Apple t-shirt. Checkered Vans… Just like Papa.
Our visit was probably only an hour long (and that was walking through twice), but it was so much fun. We’ll definitely be back again soon, and hopefully this time with a picnic to enjoy outside afterwards.
When we originally walked out the door, Gracen had bent over, tapped her pointer on the sidewalk and said, “Star. Star!” I asked if she wanted to draw stars on the sidewalk with chalk (she’s all about stars and hearts right now) and she enthusiastically nodded ‘yes’. I told her that we would do just that upon our return, and she certainly didn’t forget. The second we stepped up on our walk, she reminded me of my promise. We worked on our sidewalk art for a while, and then Grae focused her attention on expanding the size of her ever-growing rock collection.
We headed inside for a few minutes, but Gracen wasn’t done with being outdoors. As I tidied the kitchen and got started on lunch, she decided she’d have a tea party in the solarium. She played for a long while as I secretly snuck peeks of her pouring cups of tea and nibbling on plastic sweets. I got away with it several times, but eventually got caught. It turned out that being caught was a huge treat, because when I did, I got showered with ‘through the screen kisses’ and then got to enjoy this little show of funny faces.
A tea party for two.
This afternoon we had Miss G’s 18 month wellness check up. Although I love knowing that she’s growing, gaining weight, and reaching her milestones as expected, I absolutely dread the vaccination part. I’ve always disliked it (especially in Kuwait at those terrifying government clinics), but now that she’s older, it’s worse. Afterwards, she looks up at me with these big tear-filled eyes with a ‘Mama, you knew that was going to happen’ expression. Break my mama heart. The good news is that this time around it was only one shot compared to the four she had to get at twelve months. And getting to choose an animal sticker and play with toys afterwards seemed to pretty much make up for the poke.
When we originally pulled up to the clinic, my unsuspecting little lady saw the playground at the school across the street and started bouncing with excitement. Of course, little did she know, we weren’t there to play. I told her that we were going to visit the nurses, and afterwards, we’d go to a park. So that’s exactly what we did.
It was freezing cold and we were the only ones there, but she was pleased none the less.
We played, ran, slid, and hid and then headed home to have dinner and a warm bath!
Gracen absolutely loves our friends’ little man to bits. To the point where it’s an obsession. Today Steph and Tate came over for lunch and a visit, and she literally could not leave his side. The poor little guy just wanted some peace and quiet to slumber in the sunshine, and Grae was all up in his business the entire time. And imagine her dismay when it was nap time! She was utterly insulted by the fact that I would even consider making her sleep while there was a baby in our house. She fell asleep crying “Buubba… Buuuuubba…” (baby) and woke up 30 minutes later pointing out her door and calling “Bubba! Bubba!” in desperation. I guess we have to make sure we see Tate more often!
This afternoon, as I tidied up the kitchen, Miss G sat at her little table happily colouring and drawing. That is, until she came into the kitchen with narrowed eyes, a furrowed brow, and a serious, “Mama?” She held her pudgy little hand out to me and looked at the floor.
In my most serious mama voice, I said, “Gracen, what is this?” After a short pause, she looked up at me with bright eyes and upturned lips and proudly announced, “Star!”